In-Character (IC) Info:
Onyx Path Publishing
Chronicles of Darkness
Chronicles of Darkness
Venue: Hunter: The Vigil 2nd Ed
Post by: Jerad Sayler
New General Merits
FIGHTING MERITS
They say you sweat in training to avoid bleeding in
combat, but sometimes the bleeding comes first.. Survivors
debrief experiences, codify them, and pass them on. Students
and rivals tweak techniques to account for new experiences,
methods, rituals, and aesthetics.
Deconstructing
Fighting Styles
Chronicles of Darkness models Fighting Styles through
two mechanisms. First, a linear Merit ladder that represents
steps on the way to mastering the style. Second, individual
Merits list Style Merits as prerequisites. They’re optional
abilities that further distinguish characters from one
another.
In this chapter, we’re breaking that structure. Characters
can now learn styles in a much less structured fashion,
though you don’t have to change existing characters. The
Chronicles of Darkness rules stay the same. Yet we want
to free Fighting Styles from formal martial arts and other
rigidly defined backgrounds. So first, let’s present new systems
for learning, mastering, and defining your own styles.
Style and Background
Some styles have informal names. Others take the names
of real martial arts. In both cases, take style names as suggestions
to help incorporate a style into a character’s history.
For example, the Systema name suggests that characters
with this style might be students of that martial art, but
a player could just as easily decide that the character’s a
dedicated student of modern dance with special body skills.
The style’s prerequisites, systems, and Style Tags (see below)
take priority over their names and histories, but we’ve still
included that information to make it easy to pick Merits to
fit character backgrounds.
On the other hand, many real-world training regimens
are too complex to be encompassed by a single style. Some
Chinese and Japanese martial arts teach dozens of weapons
and special skills. Police and military training demand more
than the ability to shoot and internalize a few combative
tricks. Nevertheless, you can claim a character’s been comprehensively
trained, because a Fighting Style represents
specialized focus on a form of combat, not basic exposure.
Most training is already a function of your character’s Skills.
Your elite Russian operative might train in Close Quarters
Combat, Firefight, Light Weapons, and Systema but you
don’t need all those Merits to represent that. Pick Merits
for one or two special talents, not every hour of training.
Other Styles could be easily modified to suit specific
chronicle needs. For example, a Vampire: The Requiem
character who can speak with and train bobcats could very
well use the K-9 Style to represent that relationship, even
though a bobcat is not the required dog.
Stacking Fighting Merits
Can you use more than one Fighting Style maneuver or
other Merit in a single attack? Sometimes. The following
rules apply.
1. If nobody can explain how the maneuvers would
stack in the story, it doesn’t work. The player needs
to describe an action that brings them together. Your
two-pistol backflip neck breaker’s probably going
to sound dumb — unless you can somehow make it
sound amazing.
2. The required equipment or other circumstances for
all maneuvers used must be present.
3. You can’t stack Fighting Merits that penalize one of
your character’s traits more than once, or impose the
same disadvantage more than once. For example, you
cannot stack two Merits that lower Defense, even if
they cumulatively would not reduce Defense below
zero.
4. You can’t stack maneuvers that use different dice
pools, unless changing the dice pool is a benefit
the Merit specifically confers. For example, you can
Why Can’t I Do It Without the Merit?
Some of the Merits in this section represent things most combatants may be capable of, such as specific
targeted attacks and general martial arts maneuvers. There’s nothing to say a character can’t use a trunk
squeeze while wrestling without the Trunk Squeeze Merit. However, he doesn’t have the specialized training
necessary to benefit from the specific mechanics listed in the Merit.
use Fighting Finesse with maneuvers that require
Strength + Weaponry, and they’ll use Dexterity +
Weaponry instead, but you can’t combine a Merit
that uses Weaponry with one that uses Brawl.
5. When stacked maneuvers provide the same benefit,
the higher of the two apply. All disadvantages apply
(though remember that you can’t stack maneuvers
that impose the same disadvantage twice). Note that
when two maneuvers provide the same result by
different means, they do stack, so the Rote benefit
(re-roll failed dice) does stack with bonus dice.
Style Tags
In these rules, most Fighting Merits have Style Tags.
These define a Merit’s basic category, how it functions,
and most importantly, its relationship with similar Merits.
Most Merits utilize the following Style Tags. Avoid inventing
new ones, as it disconnects them from existing Merits and
keeps players from developing their own Fighting Styles. In
addition, the Style Tag lists currently published styles that
fall under these tags.
Archery: Using a hand-drawn bow, as opposed to a
crossbow (which normally uses Pistol or Rifle). Styles:
Bowmanship and Combat Archery
Attitude (and Keywords): These styles don’t rely on
movement, but channel an emotional state or motivation
into the focus to fight. Note that this actually stands for a
number of tags with specific keywords representing emotional
states. To help create styles, create new keywords sparingly.
The default keywords are: Calm, Cautious, Determined,
Enraged, Retributive. Styles: Berserker (Enraged), Relentless
Assault (Determined)
Creature (Keyword): Styles that use the natural capabilities
of creatures that don’t have a strictly human form,
including animals and certain monstrous beings. Keywords
define individual Style Tags. Default Keywords are: Avian,
Bite, Claw, and Constrictor. Styles: K-9 (Bite), Falconry
(Claw)
Flexible: Chain weapons, rope weapons, f lails,
nunchaku, and other weapons that strike with a combination
of weight and transfer through flexible cords or weights.
Styles: Chain Weapons
Grappling: Practitioners grab opponents to strangle
them, pin them, hyperextend their limbs, and throw them.
Styles: Grappling
Heavy Melee: Using a blade or club that is best wielded
with two hands, but isn’t operated with evenly spaced hands
like a Pole Weapon — two-handed swords and big clubs
qualify. Note that some weapons might be used as both
Heavy Melee and Pole Weapons. Styles: Armed Defense,
Heavy Weapons, Mounted Combat
Light Melee: Using a blade or club that can easily
be wielded in one hand. Styles: Armed Defense, Light
Weapons, Mounted Combat
Movement (and Keywords): Ways of moving to optimize
fighting or athletic ability. This Style Tag is actually several,
each with its own keyword. Avoid creating new keywords
so that it’s possible to match Merits into a style based on
keyword-specific Style Tags. Default Keywords: Agile, Strong,
Tough. Styles: Parkour (Agile), Strength Performance
(Strong), Systema (Agile)
Pistol: Using a pistol or pistol-gripped ranged weapon
that does not require a stock, such as a dart gun or modern
miniature crossbow. Styles: Firefight, Marksmanship,
Powered Projectile
Pole Weapons: These styles teach the use of staves,
spears, polearms, and other long-hafted weapons. Some
weapons might be used as both Heavy Melee and Pole
Weapons. Styles: Staff Fighting
Rifle: Operating a hunting or assault rifle, or other
long-ranged weapon that typically employs a shoulder stock.
Styles: Firefight, Marksmanship
Striking: The focus is on striking with fists, feet, elbows,
knees, and other human “natural weapons.” Inhuman natural
weapons are the province of Creature styles. Striking may
function with weapons that utilize the Brawl Skill. Styles:
Boxing, Martial Arts, Unarmed Defense
Tactical (Keyword): These styles represent trade skills
and tricks from certain professions, such as police or members
of the military. Each profession has its own Keyword,
and when attached to the tag, creates a specific Style Tag.
Default Keywords: Military, Police, Street. Create new
Keywords only if they can be attached to enough Merits to
create a significant Fighting Style. Styles: Close Quarters
Combat (Military), Improvised Weapons (Street), Street
Fighting (Street), Police Tactics (Police)
Using Style Tags
On one hand, you can choose to purchase the next level
of a Fighting Style as usual, for the cost of a single Merit
dot. The standard Chronicles of Darkness rules apply. If a
Fighting Style possesses alternate maneuvers, you may add the
“standard” or alternate maneuver to your character this way.
Yet your character might abandon orthodox advancement.
If she chooses this route, you may purchase any
maneuver for the price of a one-dot Fighting Merit and add
it to her abilities. The catch? The character needs to first
possess as many Merit dots in the same Style Tag as the rank
(in Fighting Style progression) of the unorthodox or extra
maneuver she wishes to learn. This investment can take
the form of maneuvers (for one dot each) or Merits with
a matching Style Tag (which may have variable Merit dot
costs). This restriction also applies to characters who wish
to learn more than one alternate maneuver in a single style.
Style Tags can’t override prerequisite Attribute and
Skill ratings, prerequisite maneuvers (such as exist in many
Grappling maneuvers), and other special requirements, noted
with each style.
Example: Musa was a Dambe boxer in Nigeria, but thought
he’d left the hobby behind when he went to MIT. But recent
events plunged him into weird, violent scenarios, so it’s time for
him to continue his training. He studies at a local Muay Thai
gym. Musa knows the first two dots of Boxing (Striking) and the
two-dot version of Iron Chin, which also uses the Striking tag.
That gives him four dots of Merits that fall under Striking. The
gym teaches the Martial Arts style, which also uses the Striking
tag, in the following progression: Leg Kick •, Cutting Elbow ••,
Whirlwind Strike •••, The Hand as Weapon ••••, and High
Momentum Strike •••••. Musa’s four dots of Striking Merits
allow him to learn anything up to The Hand as Weapon without
methodically advancing up the style. His player decides to pay the
cost of The Hand as Weapon (as a one-dot Merit) and Musa hits
the heavy bag. After dedicated training, Musa now knows the
following maneuvers: Head Protection (Boxing •), Defensive Jab
(Boxing ••), and The Hand as Weapon (Martial Arts ••••).
Combined with the Iron Chin that represented enough raw
experience to skip a certain amount of formal training, Musa has
evolved into a deadly puncher. Of course, his coaches lambast his
terrible kicking technique, and nag him to work on it and become
a well-rounded fighter.
The Best Style
Martial arts, combat sports, and training for crisisprone
professions each have their own methods,
philosophies, and objectives. As cultural products
these things mutate, mash together, and shift context,
but there’s always the feeling that the stakes
are high enough that it’s not enough to just learn to
fight, but learn the very best way.
So martial artists annoy each other with differences
of opinion all the damn time.
Exponents of combat sports like Muay Thai and
MMA exchange plenty of unkind words with
advocates of traditional styles like karate. Fans of
“reality-based self-defense” methods based on
police and military tactics think everybody else is
stuck in rules and traditions. People who like guns
just say they’ll shoot all these assholes. Style and
school rivalries break out all the time. It’s mostly
trash talk, but sometimes people come to blows
at formal tournaments or closed-door “training
sessions.” Stories readily erupt from these sorts of
conflicts.
This book doesn’t take any particular position
because it’s more fun if we cast a wide net, and
don’t tell you that such and such a method is
garbage. On the other hand, in the Chronicles
of Darkness a strip mall karate school where
most of the students are under 12 is never going
to make you a “warrior,” and regardless of what
you believe, we assume that without supernatural
powers, knocking someone out requires you to
pound them, not lightly tap pressure point GB-12
with Crane Hand. (Fun fact: GB-12 is behind the
ear and yes, getting punched behind the ear is
bad.) In the Chronicles of Darkness, fighting
is a sweat-drenched trade that leaves bruises,
breaks, and lacerations.
LISTING OF MERITS FROM THE HURT LOCKER
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